Inside the Islamic State’s capital: Red Bull-drinking jihadists, hungry civilians, crucifixions and air strikes
Posted by Kit in Islamic state on Monday, 1 December 2014, 8:44 pm
Mark Townsend
The Observer
30 November 2014
Activists tell of the Isis elite living in relative luxury as civilians face poverty, hunger, inflation and power shortages
The beleaguered inhabitants of Raqqa, self-proclaimed capital of the Islamic State (Isis), are suffering widespread hunger, crippling inflation, chronic power shortages and poverty so acute that emergency soup kitchens have been set up.
With no journalists, local or foreign, able to operate inside Syria’s sixth-largest city, courageous local activists have given the Observer a detailed account of life under the jihadists’ totalitarian regime, a rare glimpse of everyday life in the city.
Their testimony reveals the evolution of a community brutally divided into haves and have-nots, with Isis enjoying well-resourced services including “private” hospitals and a relatively high standard of living as many residents struggle to make ends meet.
Crucifixions of Isis opponents have taken place in Raqqa’s Paradise Square, as well as frequent beheadings and lashings for offences as minor as smoking a cigarette. Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi, founder of a network of activists called Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, told the Observer: “Isis kills a lot of people, we see a lot of executions, a lot of beheadings. I have seen about five people crucified in the city. People are now calling Paradise Square Hell Square.” Read the rest of this entry »
After A Bloodbath In Oil, What Next?
Christopher Helman
Forbes
12/01/2014
Welcome back from Thanksgiving week. Apparently OPEC did something and oil prices plunged. If you were as out of touch with it all as I was last week, here’s a rundown.
As we tucked into Turkey and football last Thursday, OPEC announced no output cut, no target price and no output ceiling. Sounds like a lot of no news, but the OPEC meeting has been described in historic terms. Bloomberg’s headline declared that war had broken out: “Oil enters new era as OPEC faces off against shale; who blinks as price slides toward $70?” The accompanying article made the case that OPEC is indubitably locked in a price war against U.S. shale producers.
Oil prices plunged on the OPEC news. West Texas Intermediate crude is now at $65 a barrel. It was $107 back in June.
That Bloomberg article had my favorite quote of the week, from Leonid Fedun, a board member at Russia’s Lukoil. Fedun said that by maintaining output levels, OPEC would bring about an outright crash among U.S. shale drillers. “In 2016, when OPEC completes this objective of cleaning up the American marginal market, the oil price will start growing again,” said Fedun. “The shale boom is on a par with the dot-com boom. The strong players will remain, the weak ones will vanish.”
No surprise, Friday was a bloodbath for shares of America’s oil and gas independents. Read the rest of this entry »
Oil hits five-year low in longest losing streak since 2008
by Ron Bousso and Ahmed Aboulenein
Reuters
London
Mon Dec 1, 2014 9:41am GMT
(Reuters) – Brent crude oil fell more than $2 a barrel to a five-year low below $68 on Monday as investors looked for a price floor after last week’s OPEC decision not to cut production.
Both U.S. crude and Brent have fallen for five straight months, oil’s longest losing streak since the 2008 financial crisis.
“The market is still very much in panic mode,” said Energy Aspects’ chief oil analyst Amrita Sen. “Once we get over the panic, Brent prices will probably stabilise at around $65-80 a barrel in the short term.”
Saudi Arabia, the most influential member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last week blocked moves by some smaller producers to curb oil output in response to huge oversupply in world markets.
Brent hit a low of $67.53 a barrel, the lowest since October 2009, and was down $1.42 at $68.73 a barrel by 9.21 a.m. . U.S. crude fell $1.45 to $64.70 a barrel, having slipped to an intraday low of $63.72, the lowest since July 2009.
Oil lost more than 12 percent after OPEC’s decision last Thursday. Read the rest of this entry »
Will the PM, DPM, Home Minister and all UMNO Ministers co-operate with the police in investigations into the seditious and hate speeches made by two UMNO delegates at last week’s UMNO GAs?
Posted by Kit in Law & Order, Najib Razak, UMNO, Zahid on Monday, 1 December 2014, 4:18 pm
Are the police waiting for the “green light” by the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi before they dare to move on the various police reports and investigate sedition and other hate crimes committed by two UMNO delegates Mohd Zaidi Mohd Said (Penang) and Mashitah Ibrahim (Kedah) at last week’s UMNO General Assemblies?
From Zahid’s “war-mongering” speech during the winding-up of the UMNO General Assembly on Saturday, he seemed to have usurped the powers of everybody and arrogated to himself the sole powers of deciding whether a person has committed sedition, whether the police, the Attorney-General or even the Judiciary – a sort of one-man arbiter combining the powers of “judge, jury and executioner” on sedition offences to the extent that he could pride himself for being described as a “hardcore” or “fundamentalist” Home Minister, bragging that 40 people had been prosecuted under the Sedition Act in 2010 and 12 this year and more to come, especially after the retention of the Sedition Act after being “fortified”.
Many Malaysians are shocked by Zahid’s “war-mongering” performance in his winding-up speech last Saturday, for no Home Minister under six Prime Ministers in the past 57 years had misbehaved like Zahid at the UMNO General Assembly last Saturday. Read the rest of this entry »
Call on Najib to make Ministerial statement in Senate on Dayak grouses about discrimination in the federal civil service
Posted by Kit in public service, Sabah, Sarawak on Monday, 1 December 2014, 8:50 am
The Senate begins its 12-day budget meeting today till Dec. 18.
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should take the occasion to make a Ministerial statement in Parliament on Dayak grouses about discrimination in the federal civil service.
Najib should clarify the current controversy in Sarawak revolving around a list of promotions, purportedly in the Sarawak Road Transport Department, which has sparked outrage among Dayak professionals and civil servants in the state over what they see as proof of discrimination against non-Malay Bumiputeras in the federal civil service.
The list, which has been posted on a blog and on Facebook, names eight Malay enforcement officers as “berjaya” (successful) in securing promotions from the N27 scale to N32, while three Dayak officers were listed as “simpanan”, or reserve.
To Dayaks, the list confirms what they have felt all along and what has also been noted in the just-released Malaysia Human Development Report 2013 – that discrimination exists within the Bumiputeras working in the civil service, with Malays given preference over natives. Read the rest of this entry »
Zero household savings is staggering, and true
– Kamal Salih, Muhammed Abdul Khalid and Lee Hwok Aun
The Malaysian Insider
29 November 2014
We refer to statements by the Governor of Bank Negara (BNM), Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, reported on various print media on November 28, 2014, on portions of the Malaysia Human Development Report (MHDR).
She disputes our finding that over 90% of Malaysians have no savings, claiming that the analysis is “partial” and “misleading”.
We thank Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz for engaging with the MHDR, and for providing this opening to reaffirm our findings. Allow us to clarify the points raised by Tan Sri Zeti. Read the rest of this entry »
Putrajaya claims reduced poverty but UN report shows more poor Malaysians
by Anisah Shukry
The Malaysian Insider
1 December 2014
Whether poverty has declined in Malaysia depends on how it is measured. An example is Putrajaya’s reliance on absolute poverty figures, which according to a United Nations report, results in data that does not reflect reality.
The Malaysia Human Development Report 2013 commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) instead says poverty is better measured against what households earn in general, rather than by a fixed minimum level.
The report measures relative poverty, which sets the threshold at half the national median income, and finds the number of Malaysians in this category has been rising since 2007, with one in five households considered relatively poor.
Absolute poverty, on the other hand, is a measurement based on the declared poverty line. In Peninsular Malaysia, this is fixed at RM763, RM912 in Sarawak and RM1,048 in Sabah.
But the relative poverty line in 2012 was RM1,813, or half of the household median income of RM3,626.
The report, released last week and prepared by Malaysian researchers, notes that in 2007, 17.4% of Malaysians were in relative poverty, and this increased to 19.3% in 2009 and 20% in 2012.
The figures fly in the face of Putrajaya’s claim to have successfully reduced absolute poverty to 1.7% in 2012, from 49.3% in 1970. Read the rest of this entry »
Oil Prices Are Plunging. Here’s Who Wins and Who Loses.
Neil Irwin
New York Times
NOV. 28, 2014
While Americans were stuffing their faces with poultry Thursday, global oil markets were in chaos. And the implications are far-reaching.
The price of oil was down more than 9.9 percent Friday afternoon after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided it would not cut back production significantly in the months ahead.
In other words, even amid a sluggish global economy and a boom in oil production in the United States, oil-producing countries from Saudi Arabia to Nigeria to Venezuela are going to keep pumping rather than pull back on output in hopes of pumping prices back up.
The latest decline pushes oil prices in the United States under $70 a barrel; the prices were more than $100 for almost all of July. And the latest OPEC move (or non-move, as it were) suggests that it isn’t going to reverse course anytime soon. Read the rest of this entry »
Falling oil prices offer the west a great chance to refashion itself. Let’s seize it
Will Hutton
The Observer
30 November 2014
With the black stuff cheaper than it has been in years, Europe’s governments must invest in their infrastructure
For the past 18 months, the world’s biggest oil producer has been the US. Saudi Arabia, eat your heart out. Courtesy of the fracking revolution, the US will maintain this new standing for the foreseeable future, according to official projections.
The world as we’ve known it for the past 50 years is being stood on its head. Which provides cause for optimism. But an international landscape increasingly dominated by nationalist firebrands, conservative zealots and policy makers in thrall to austerity economics is always apt to waste opportunities.
One first good result of this oil price shift, however, was witnessed at Opec’s meeting in Vienna last week. The once feared cartel of oil-exporting countries, with Saudi Arabia at its core, a cartel that at one time commanded more than half of global production, is now a shadow of its former self. Opec’s members were unable to agree to cut production because most are strapped for cash and had no choice but to maintain levels.
With the US needing to buy less oil on international markets and China’s growth sinking to its lowest mark for 40 years, there is now, amazingly, the prospect of an oil glut. The oil price instantly nosedived to its lowest level for four years, around $70 a barrel – down more than a third in three months. Read the rest of this entry »
The fall in the oil price is the biggest thing to happen for six months
Hamish McRae
The Independent
30 November 2014
Every swing in commodity values has winners and losers, but here there are many more winners
The fall in the oil price is big. It is big in terms of the raw numbers, a decline on the Brent reference price from above $115 (£74) a barrel as recently as June, to below $73 on Friday. We are starting to see that feed through to heating oil and the price at the pumps. But more important is the impact it has on the world economy. This is the biggest single thing that has happened in the past six months – and it comes in the nick of time, making the recovery in the developed world much more secure. Whenever there is a big swing in prices there are winners and losers, but the winners far outnumber the losers.
The basic point here is that high energy prices are like a tax on global growth. The oil price affects all energy prices and the more money that flows to the producers, the less there is in the consuming nations to spend on other goods and services. Read the rest of this entry »
Oil: The Good, the Better, the Ugly
Commentary
By Alen Mattich
Wall Street Journal
Nov 28, 2014
Oil prices have fallen a long way this year. They might fall much further still.
Crude prices have fallen 36% since their summer peak, then sent into a tailspin by the failure of OPEC, the cartel of oil producing countries accounting for 40% of global supply, to trim its output quotas. And history suggests prices can fall substantially further.
It’s worth bearing in mind that for nearly two decades to 2005, crude oil prices largely ranged between $20 and $40 a barrel in today’s money. The average inflation-adjusted price of West Texas Intermediate oil since 1970 is a little under $55 a barrel compared with a little under $70 now.
That’s not to say that’s how far they’ll drop.
A rapid technical snap-back is always a possibility. But the fundamentals seem stacked towards lower rather than higher prices for now.
Which will make for some interesting economic dynamics. Read the rest of this entry »
How low can it go? Oil, gas prices in freefall as OPEC reels from US fracking
FoxNews.com
November 29, 2014
Drivers paying less at the pump due to free-falling oil prices can thank the U.S. energy boom for generating shale oil – and weakening OPEC’s ability to keep the cost of a gallon of gas high.
In just a matter of months, the price of a barrel of oil has dropped from more than $100 to about $70, and gas is now cheaper than it has been in years. But a recent report conducted for the American Petroleum Institute claimed oil would cost twice as much as it does now if it weren’t for America’s fracking boom, which wrings oil and natural gas out of shale miles underground.
But the next question could be whether the fracking industry can survive the low prices it brought.
“The shale boom is on a par with the dot-com boom,” Russian oil baron Leonid Fedun of OAO Lukoil told Bloomberg. “The strong players will remain, the weak ones will vanish.” Read the rest of this entry »
How corruption abroad threatens U.S. national security
Posted by Kit in Corruption on Sunday, 30 November 2014, 3:18 pm
Doyle McManus
Los Angeles Times
Nov 29, 2014
When the militants of Islamic State swept across Iraq last June, they numbered no more than 12,000 and they faced a U.S.-trained, U.S.-equipped Iraqi army that boasted some 200,000 troops.
And yet it was the Iraqi army that collapsed.
What happened? It was more than simply incompetence among Iraqi generals and ethnic tensions among the ranks. The hidden factor that gave Islamic State its victory was Iraq’s rampant corruption. The Baghdad government’s army had 200,000 troops on paper, but many were “ghost soldiers,” fictional troops whose wages went into their officers’ pockets. The unfortunate troops who showed up often lacked equipment and ammunition because their officers had sold it on the black market.
“I told the Americans, don’t give any weapons through the army — not even one piece — because corruption is everywhere, and you will not see any of it,” Col. Shaaban al-Obeidi of Iraq’s internal security forces told The New York Times this month. “Our people will steal it.”
We often look at corruption as a secondary issue in international affairs: as a moral problem that allows Third World governments to steal from their people and gets in the way of equitable economic development.
But the lesson of the collapse of the Iraqi army, an army built with $25 billion in U.S. aid, is this: Corruption isn’t only a moral issue; it’s a national security issue, too. Read the rest of this entry »
Only relief of the dreary 2014 UMNO General Assembly politics of fear, hate and lies is admission by Muhyddin that it will only take 2% shift in voter support to end six decades of UMNO rule
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, UMNO on Sunday, 30 November 2014, 11:33 am
The only relief in the dreary 2014 UMNO General Assembly politics of fear, hate and lies is the admission by the Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy President, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin that it will only take 2% shift in voter support to end six decades of UMNO rule in the country.
It is a reminder as to how close the UMNO/BN government would have been voted out in the 13th General Election in May last year, if the electoral process had been really clean, free and fair, minus all the constituency gerrymandering and the undemocratic abuses and malpractices in the country.
As Muhyiddin admitted, a loss of two per cent voter support will translate to Barisan Nasional being reduced from its 133 seats won in the 13GE to 103 federal states, less than half of the 222-seat Parliament – comprising 68 UMNO seats and 35 non-UMNO seats.
A loss of five per cent voter support would have slashed the total BN seats to 81, comprising 53 UMNO and 28 non-UMNO seats.
It is precisely because of this fear of losing Federal power which explains why the 2014 General Assembly is such a disappointment to Malaysians who had hoped that UMNO leadership would rise to the occasion to establish its claim to continued rule in Malaysia by articulating a vision for a better tomorrow for all Malaysians.
Instead, moderate, rational and patriotic Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Ibans or Orang Asli, were subjected to a week-long torture of the politics of fear, hate and lies – holding out no uplifting vision for the future, whether for Malays or Malaysians. Read the rest of this entry »
Passed over for promotions, Sarawak Dayaks seethe at civil service discrimination
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Sarawak on Sunday, 30 November 2014, 8:38 am
by Desmond Davidson
The Malaysian Insider
30 November 2014
A list of promotions, purportedly in the Sarawak Road Transport Department, has sparked outrage among Dayak professionals and civil servants in the state over what they see as proof of discrimination against non-Malay Bumiputera in the federal civil service.
The list, which has been posted on a blog and on Facebook, names eight Malay enforcement officers as “berjaya” (successful) in securing promotions from the N27 scale to N32, while three Dayak officers were listed as “simpanan”, or reserve.
To Dayaks – as Sarawak’s indigenous people are called – the list confirms what they have felt all along and what has also been noted in the just-released Malaysia Human Development Report 2013 – that discrimination exists within the Bumiputera working in the civil service, with Malays given preference over natives.
The list was posted on November 25 on www.pengerindu.com, a blog on Dayak interests which has a wide following among Ibans, a branch of the Dayak people.
“Dayaks are only qualified to become ‘reserves’ until when? I fear the ‘tsunami of young Dayaks’ could undermine the Sarawak government if nothing is done to help the Dayaks,” wrote the author of the post, Mr J. Read the rest of this entry »
Is this the party that gave us the Tunku, Dr M?
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, UMNO on Saturday, 29 November 2014, 10:53 pm
COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
29 November 2014
Umno was the party that moved for Malaya’s independence and later the formation of Malaysia together with Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore.
Back then, Umno was a party of civil servants and intellectuals that advanced the cause of the Malays.
But if after the first couple of days of the Umno general assembly, Malaysians still believe in this party that gave us giants such as Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, Tun Hussein Onn and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, they must be: a) suffering from permanent brain damage b) illiterate c) recent “citizens” d) Umno members e) all of the above.
It is not only the ridiculous fighting talk that has been nauseating, but the sheer obtuse nature of the debate and for want of a more palatable word, stupidity at display.
It is the ruling party since Merdeka, that is some 57 years ago, and yet it talks of an economic jihad for the Malays and Bumiputera as if the government it controls has done nothing.
It is the ruling party with access to all security information and yet one leader can brazenly say a Quran has been burnt in Kedah without any proof, and with a denial from no one less than the Kedah menteri besar. Read the rest of this entry »
Triple politics of fear, hate and lies at the UMNO General Assembly
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, UMNO on Saturday, 29 November 2014, 2:05 pm
The UMNO General Assemblies this week have been a disastrous demonstration of the triple divisive and dirty politics of fear, hate and lies.
The underlying theme of the UMNO General Assemblies was to propagate the siege mentality that the Malays and Islam are under attack, but not to allow any critical or rational thinking and inquiry as to whether and how after 57 years of UMNO rule under six UMNO Prime Ministers, the Malays and Islam are under siege in 2014.
If Malays and Islam are indeed under siege today, then UMNO which has ruled the country for 57 years with six UMNO Prime Ministers, must bear the fullest responsibility and blame.
Are the present UMNO leaders, led by Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as UMNO President and Deputy President as well as Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister respectively, prepared to admit that the 57 years of UMNO rule and the six UMNO Prime Ministers since 1957 had been such dismal failures as to result in Malays and Islam facing unprecedented siege in the nation’s history?
If 57-year UMNO rule under six UMNO Prime Ministers have brought such disastrous results to the Malays and Islam, then the answer must be found in removing UMNO from Putrajaya and not in perpetuating UMNO rule at the national level! Read the rest of this entry »
What Umno reps need to talk about
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman, UMNO on Saturday, 29 November 2014, 1:22 am
By Azly Rahman
Malaysiakini
Nov 27, 2014
As a child growing up in the birthplace of Umno in the 60s, who saw his beloved grandfather a devoted member of this party of the 50s cry like a child in a corner by his radiogram when Abdul Razak Hussein died in the 70s, and one who has studied how this party stopped progressing by the early 80s, degenerating from a party of pride and dignity to pariah and dying with diseases of greed and gluttony by late 90s, I would like to suggest the following be discussed in order to lend the benefits of a life-support system to it.
I am also suggesting a poem be read out by the members. The following should be my humble suggestions for Umno, a party my ancestors, too, were members of, to undertake:
*Coming up with strategies to create a better understanding between the races, since we’ve been together for centuries?
*Designing our education system to be inclusive of all Malaysians with each race treated on equal terms,
*Helping any group progress, regardless of race, religion or political affiliation, since we are all lawful citizens and we are not going back to “where we belong”,
*Dismantling all systems that will perpetuate hatred amongst us and redesign our lives around celebrating our strength in diversity, Read the rest of this entry »
MCA, MIC and Gerakan utterly irrelevant, but have Sarawak and Sabah also become irrelevant in BN national decision-making process on issues directly affecting the two states?
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Sabah, Sarawak, UMNO on Friday, 28 November 2014, 3:58 pm
When buckling under pressure from the rightists and extremists in UMNO and UMNO-sponsored NGOs, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak not only reneged on his specific promise in July 2012 to repeal the Sedition Act, but added salt to injury by declaring that the Sedition Act would be further strengthened and become even more draconian and repressive.
MCA, MIC and Gerakan are utterly irrelevant in the UMNO-dominated Barisan Nasional scheme of things, as evident by the way the views of these three parties and their leaders were ignored and not even sought in Umno-BN’s major decision-making process.
However, are the views and legitimate interests of Sarawak and Sabah similarly disregarded in the Umno-Barisan Nasional national decision-making process, especially in matters directly affecting the people in the two states?
Najib announced yesterday that the Sedition Act would not only be retained, it would be fortified, so as to deal with calls for secession of Sarawak and Sabah.
Have the Sarawak and Saban Barisan Nasional leaders been fully consulted and given their consent to the proposal to criminalise calls for secession of Sarawak and Sabah by making them offences under the repressive Sedition Act?
DAP opposes any call for the secession of Sarawak and Sabah from Malaysia but I fully agree the Sarawak Land Development Minister Tan Sri Dr. James Masing that only a small group of people have advocated secession of Sarawak and Sabah and instead of criminalising such calls, the wisest political and nation-building response is to engage with these groups to find out what are the causes of their unhappiness. Don’t kill the messenger but miss the message! Read the rest of this entry »
Najib making Umno less relevant, says columnist
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, UMNO on Friday, 28 November 2014, 1:03 pm
The Malaysian Insider
28 November 2014
Umno is losing its appeal among more Malaysians, and its president Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been the cause of this with new approaches that pushed the party out of the political spotlight, effectively making it less relevant to the people, The Edge Review columnist, Bridget Welsh, wrote.
Among these were the “outsourcing” of Umno’s traditional role as defender of the Malays to right-wing groups like Perkasa, competing with PAS to be the defender of Islam, use of government resources and machinery to dispense patronage, and relegating the party to the sidelines in the making of government policy.
Writing in this week’s edition of the digital magazine, Welsh, a political analyst, said Najib had changed Umno’s role and in so doing, made the party “less politically relevant”.
She noted that Umno has long relied on the “racial insecurity” of Malays to maintain power but outsourcing its role as defender of the Malays to other groups had “marked the start of Umno’s slide to the sidelines”.
Although these groups received government funding and were closely linked to Umno, holding memberships in both, they had come to take over Umno’s position in spearheading calls to protect Malay interests.
The next approach, competing with PAS to “position Umno as the defender of Islam in Malaysia” effectively moved Umno further from its “moderate roots”, causing it to be perceived by the public as becoming more zealous and hardline. Read the rest of this entry »
